General Chat

We have been contacted via DNA with a second cousin in America who was born in the above Home and then adopted. I know the home was run by Salvation Army. They will not release any details because of legal reasons. Any suggestions of how to find out what adoption agency would have been involved with this home. The year would be 1960. Any suggestions gratefully received.

''Mother & Baby Homes' in Ireland have recently been highlighted in the media over there.

Just last week, a group of survivors were invited to Dublin by the President who apologised profusely for the woeful treatment both mothers & children received from the State & religious organisations in those dark days. Many babies ended up & raised in America paid for by childless couples over there

From what I read, to get anyway near official records, an expert researcher would be needed. And just to muddle enquiries further, many paper records were destroyed.

Good luck!

Thank you for the above information. It feels like we are up against a brick wall. However, we are determined to carry on. We have accepted our cousin into the family but would love to get him some more information.

Susan - just out of interest, loads of general stuff can be found on here under 'Magdalene Laundries'.

Heavy going!

Info of a general kind here

http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/list/Glamorgan.shtml

Northlands is listed, about halfway down the list.

A friend was born in a Salvation Army Home in 1954. I think they handled the adoption themselves.

Andy

Was she adopted in the UK? Has she had access to her adoption file? If not, suggests she contacts Cardiff Social Services.
Obviously adoption within the USA is different. She’s probably more information than we do.

Does she have her original BC? Details how to obtain it here
https://www.gov.uk/adoption-records

It’s strange that the SA won’t release her personal details to her. She could quote the Freedom of Information Act at them. However, she’d probably need to prove her birth name, hence involvement with SS & getting the BC.

Thanks everyone he was born and adopted in UK. Salvation Army have told him
Because of legal restrictions we are currently not permitted to pursue enquiries where adoption has taken place. they suggested he contact an Adoption Support Agency. He has had his original Birth cert. From which we got mothers name occupation and address she lived at. Trying to follow this up. Will tell him to write to Cardiff Social Services but feel that he will come up against the same barriers. Thanks once again your help is much appreciated.

He, and only he, is legally entitled to view his adoption file. No ifs, no ands, no buts. That means, even as an interested helpful distant relative, you aren’t able to act on his behalf.

If the SA are worried about anything particular sensitive relating to different living person, that can be redacted.

Assuming they do hold his file, perhaps they are advising that an intermediary acts on his behalf as he isn’t in the UK.

The link, given earlier, has a section on intermediaries. It also states
“Everyone adopted before 12 November 1975 will need to attend a counselling session with an approved adoption advisor first.”

People who have been through this process are better equipped to comment on it. As an outsider, it could be to prepare them for rejection by the birth parent, or even discovering they were conceived through an act of non-consensual intercourse/incest/prostitution.

He has made these enquiries not me with all the agencies. I have also passed him the information you have given me re counselling session and intermediaries he is looking into all of this. We have been researching this for a while now so every site with information re adoption in UK I have already passed to him. Thanks once again.